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#MovieMonday
By Anton Adianto
Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is recognized as one of the most legendary stories. However, not many realize that the epic tale is a true story. Fortunately, Ron Howard, the director of “In the Heart of the Sea” has managed to illustrate the classic story through the successful blockbuster. The movie is set in 1820, where a whaling ship, Essex, was destroyed after an encounter with a massive whale. This experience left only a few crews, including captain George Pollard (Benjamin Walker), first mate Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth) and cabin boy Thomas Nickerson (Tom Holland), continue to sail thousands of miles off the coast of South America. Through the journey, the survivors are forced to brave the storm, hunger, cruel heat and even their morality.
To bring the classic adventure to life, the production team used a combination of both old and new technology and style. The muddy road on one of the settings is lined with establishments one would find in a 19th century whaling town. Director Howard and cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle had referenced the fishing documentary “Leviathan” (2012) and the series from Discovery “Deadliest Catch” among other documentary sources to develop the real life looking oceanic sceneries.
Mark Tildesley, the production designer, chose to create a more of sports documentary rather than producing a BBC classical film. “We want the authenticity to be there, but we don’t want to approach it as a classic. We want to approach it as though a modern group was somehow transported back and able to get this story on film,” Howard added. In order to envision the sets, Tildesley had to learn much about the whaling industry in Nantucket. Tildesley reveals that there were around 310 ships in Nantucket during the time and each had to travel for more or less four years to return with 1,000 barrels of spermaceti oil at once. Originally, his team originally searched to find a location on the coast of England, however they ended up building a harbor and along with the ships themselves. After finishing the scenes from Nantucket, Tildesley and the team continued to sail with the ship to Canary Islands for wide-shots shooting.
Although the whale was almost an entirely CG creation, that doesn’t mean he couldn't have a personality. VFX supervisor Jody Johnson underlined that despite the devastation he caused, the character was not intended to be a monster. “He’s a creature, you know, he’s a real animal, and we need to keep him that way,” Johnson said.
Photo by Warner Brothers